


Something New

by Anonymous



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen, POV Armin Arlert, character tags aren't really posted in any particular order, kinda sad but not really (:
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 17:56:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17390981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: The top of the sun shyly peeks over the edge of the horizon. He hadn’t noticed on the Survey Corps’ trip to reclaim the wall. He hadn’t noticed the sun setting after the battle. He had never once even thought of seeing the sun rise or set without the walls blocking his view. Never once thought it could look different.But it does.





	Something New

Armin blearily awakes to the sound of disgruntled grumbling. It’s like he’s back in in the trainee barracks, and then a hand grips his shoulder and he’s roughly shaken a few times. His head hurts, and the memories of the last day start coming back to him.

 _Eren’s and Mikasa’s tearful faces. The captain’s somber voice. Commander Erwin’s bod-_  
  
Armin shakes his head and immediately grimaces when it worsens his aching temple. Gingerly sitting up, the world around him comes into focus and the words being said start to make sense.  
  
“—reed we’d travel back to Rose during the night, why’d you wake us up?” a voice, that sounds like Floch, says bitterly. “The sun isn’t even up.”

Armin notes that Floch is correct when he looks away from the rubble of Shinganshina and to the large expanse that was barely visible in the dark on the other side of Wall Maria.

“Shut up,” Levi responds. Metal clinks against the stone of the wall where Levi sets a lantern down. Jean and Mikasa both give him a look like they’re expecting an answer for being rudely woken up, but Levi doesn’t offer anything else and walks farther away from their makeshift camp on top of the wall.

The atmosphere is tense and depressed. Sasha, Connie, and Jean huddled next to each other whispering. The occasional judgmental glance towards Captain Levi makes it obvious what the subject of their conversation is about. Meanwhile, Eren and Mikasa are a few feet away from him. Eren’s eyes downcast and Mikasa’s blank gaze on Levi, unwavering. Floch, not a part of any group, is left on the sidelines glaring into the lantern. There’s only one other person-

Armin jumps a bit when Hange plops themself down next to him. “Uh?”  
  
They give him a half-hearted grin, their single eye dull and sad. “He has his reasons.” 

“The-” Armin swallows, mouth suddenly dry. Or maybe it was always dry? “The captain?”

Hange opens their mouth. “Yeah-”  
  
“What possible reasons could he have?” Floch interrupts. “He should be trialed when we return to Mitras. Rose knows he deserves it after what he did.”  
  
“Hey.” Eren speaks up. Eyes tired, but the spark of rage that has always been there still alive. “Shut your mouth before I shove you off the ledge.”  
  
Floch sneers. “Excuse me?”  
  
“You heard him,” Jean snaps. “Shut the fuck up.”

Floch stands, and Eren and Jean immediately copy him. Armin watches Mikasa grab Eren’s sleeve, tugging it, and Eren jerks his hand away. “Eren…” she whispers, hands pulling away to grip her scarf.

“You guys are just so full of yourselves aren’t you?” Floch snarls. “Kissing his ass just because he’s _Humanity’s Strongest_ ,” he rolls his eyes. “Willing to overlook his-his… his insubordination because he saved your friend.”

“Guys-” Connie tries, but the three boys are already arguing, voices raising and blaringly loud in the deathly silence of the night. He and Sasha are holding hands, skin white where their fingers press into their flesh. Armin whips his head to look at Hange, but they’re looking past the commotion and at Levi, who’s farther away now, but probably still with earshot.

Anxiety grips him- his head pounds and he pulls his knees to his face and he squeezes his eyes shut while clutching his head like it will block out the raging voices; Eren shouting and Jean holding him back from hurting Floch, but backing him up all the same. _Floch is right,_ Armin thinks, _he shouldn’t be here. Not when Commander Erwin should._

The shouting gets louder and the pounding in Armin’s head gets worse. Opening his eyes a tad, he sees Sasha looking like she’s on the verge of tears, Connie whispering frantic comforts Armin can’t hear. Mikasa has half her face buried into her scarf, hands gripping it like a lifeline, her dark eyes vacantly staring toward the ground.  
  
The lantern clatters onto its side, knocked over by Eren’s foot as he pushes forward out of Jean’s grasp, a low growl rising in his throat. Fear flashes in Floch’s eyes and he steps back, hands clenched into fists. Armin holds his breath, eyes wide, the throbbing in his head syncing with the blood pounding in his ears.

Then suddenly a hand is on Eren’s chest and everything stills. Levi doesn’t say anything, doesn’t look at anyone. Hand falling from Eren’s chest, Levi abruptly pushes Floch down til the young soldier is sitting down, an offended protest no one listens to spilling from Floch’s mouth. “You’re all so noisy,” Levi murmurs. “Just shut up and look.” He bends over and sets the lantern upright again, then walks to the edge of the wall and sits, legs thrown over the side.

Armin frowns, letting his hands fall from his head. “Look at-” he turns. “Oh.”

He hadn’t noticed it getting slightly brighter. The top of the sun shyly peeks over the edge of the horizon. He hadn’t noticed on the Survey Corps’ trip to reclaim the wall. He hadn’t noticed the sun setting after the battle. He had never once even thought of seeing the sun rise or set without the walls blocking his view. Never once thought it could look different.

 

But it does.

 

A sort of calm awe falls over the group. For the next hour or so, they sit there and watch. Watch the sunrise, watch the sky change colours, watch the world light up, and for a moment Armin can almost pretend that the battle never happened. That none of this ever happened. He briefly feels a dull ache in his chest, like he wishes someone could be there to see this. _An-_ But he doesn’t focus on it. Instead, he grins at Mikasa when she sits next to him, Eren sitting with her shortly after, a rush of affection building inside of him each time he experiences something brilliantly new with his friends.

After the hours go by, Levi pushes himself up, briefly glances at everyone’s faces before walking past them to his bedroll. “Get back to sleep.”

Hange stands, stretching. Eren pulls his and Mikasa’s bedrolls to where they’re sitting next to Armin’s. Armin looks back toward the sky and then at large expanse of land. He feels breathless. There are no walls out there. Free. They are _so close,_ he could feel it.

While everyone finally settles, sated, relaxed—a new hope in the air—, and ready to fall back to sleep, Armin clears his throat.  
  
“Ah,” he stammers a bit, nervous. “Captain Levi?”

Levi rolls over to look at him, a single fine brow raised.

“Could you uh- could you wake us up again?”  
  
Levi gives him an odd look. “I was going to.”  
  
Armin flushes. “No. No no. Before the sun sets.”

Hange laughs and the corners of Levi’s lips twitch upwards a little. Armin feels good.

“Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> wow! okay! hi (: 
> 
> thank you for reading to the very end, it means so much to me! i hope that means you enjoyed this, haha. if it wasn't obvious, this is sorta set after the basement and levi gives the talk on how erwin could never be replaced and before they return to wall rose. i'm not too worried about timeline accuracy, because fanfiction y'know? 
> 
> i also seriously hope i am not the only one who constantly thinks about the walls and at what time the people inside would actually see the sun etc. i'm sure doing the math for it would be terribly easy, but i'm a dumbass so... 
> 
> anyway! again, thank you so much for reading through my awkward writing. if you see any mistakes or have any suggestions on improvements to sentence bullshit, please don't be afraid to let me know!


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